How to Write A Script For Muvizu

Once you're already familiar with Muvizu:Play and looking to create some longer or more intricate videos, a good idea to help drive yourself towards a focused, high-quality end result is to write a detailed script early on in production. The script should be put-together as soon as possible after you've come up with your idea but before you begin any actual work with Muvizu:Play - this is because a good script can help you identify what assets you'll need in your scenes ahead of making them, so that when you DO sit-down to animate with Muvizu:Play you won't realise you're missing something mid-directing and need to take any backwards steps back out of the animating process to gather more assets.

Think Of It As A Radio Script

A good way to ensure your Muvizu video comes across as sensibly as possible is to think of it as a radio script. If you can tell your story in audio BEFORE you even start directing in Muvizu:Play, then you've won the majority of the battle already! An example from the BBC website of how to write scripts for radio can be found here: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/bbcradioscene.pdf

• Visualise your story from start to finish in your head and write it down as a story and/or in a note-like form and then start to flesh-out these notes with script-like directions, paying careful attention to the dialogue (if there is any in your video). Essentially, if you wanted to, you could tell the story (or much of it) from start to finish with dialogue alone - have your characters summarise things as they happen or shortly after, describing events so that someone listening would be able to imagine the scenario the characters are now in without having to have actually seen what happened.
• With your dialogue now written, move on to sound effects. Sound effects are, like the dialogue, not something you put in for the sake of "just because people do it" but because they TELL THE STORY as much as anything else you see or hear does. When you hear a creaking sound, do you not think of a door opening? Read through your script and try to imagine the events unfolding in real life... Does your character play football? If so, you'll want the sound of a ball being kicked. Does your robot fire a raygun? Well then, you'll want a laser sound effect! Think of these kinds of things and add notes on all the sound effects you plan to use in your script. A large library of free-to-use sound effects is available to you if you sign-up at http://www.freesound.org, if you're looking for some help finding some!
• The final element of your "radio script" launch point is to think about music. Again, you may not think this is ESSENTIAL for your video but it's certainly worth considering as music helps to evoke feelings and the right kind of music at the right time can help really evoke the right mood.

With your "radio script" now ready, you can record your dialogue and stitch it all together in Audacity or a similar audio editor and then play back all your audio, in sequence, from beginning to end - If it already makes sense and you can see the story unfold in your mind just by listening to the audio, then you'll have a much easier time finding the right characters, objects and character actions right off the bat in Muvizu:Play!

Once It Makes Sense As A Radio Script, Add Muvizu Directions

Once you've established you have all the audio you need, start thinking about the visuals to go with it! Go through your script and add in references to specific Character Actions you know you can use in Muvizu:Play which help to convey their emotion as they deliver a particular line or encounter a particular situation.

This is just a quickly-put-together guide which will constantly be re-written or added to. The guidelines above may not be applicable to EVERY video that EVERYONE wants to make, but they're a good jump-off set of directions for most! If you have any tips that help when writing a script with Muvizu in mind, feel free to edit this article and add them! :o)